1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an edible stable clouding agent to be used in a beverage. More specifically, the invention relates to a stable clouding agent comprised of a water soluble gum, carnauba wax, a polyhydric alcohol of two to six carbons, and an edible salt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many natural juices, including all freshly expressed citrus juices, have a characteristic turbidity or "cloudiness". It is desirable to maintain this cloudiness when processing natural juices, and to emulate it when perparing formulated beverages.
In a natural citrus juice, "cloud" is provided by minute, suspended or colloidal particles of citrus tissue and cell contents. In formulated beverages, however, various "clouding agents" have been utilized to simulate a natural cloud. For example, one known clouding agent is based on brominated oils of specific gravity greater than 1.00 g/ml in combination with lower density flavor oils or vegetable oil, such as citrus oils which have a specific gravity of about 0.85; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,961, issued Nov. 21, 1967 to Simon. Such a blend of oils is "balanced" so as to have a density close to that of the beverage in which it is to be suspended. (As an example, sugar sweetened drinks have a preferred specific gravity of about 1.03-1.06 while dietetic drinks have a specific gravity of about 1.0.).
By balancing the relatively low density flavor oil, such as citrus oils, with the high density brominated oil, it is possible to inhibit the highly insoluble citrus oils from floating to the top of the particular formulated beverage and from forming a "ring". Instead, the dispersion of the balanced oil in aqueous solutions has a desirable cloudy appearance.
However, brominated vegetable oils may now constitute only 15 ppm of a finished formulated beverage. This amount is about 10% of the concentration formerly used to prepare effective clouding agents. Consequently, brominated vegetable oils are now less effective as clouding agents.
As a substitute for brominated vegetable oils, the beverage industry generally turned to glyceryl abietate, or "Ester Gum", which is an F.D.A. approved oil-soluble material also of density greater than 1.00 g/ml; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,510, issued May 25, 1976 to Felton and Kapp. Although glyceryl abietate, like brominated vegetable oils, can be effectively utilized to prepare an adequate clouding agent, it does have objectional features. Since its specific gravity is 1.08 as compared to approximately 1.30 for brominated vegetable oils, about three times as much Ester Gum is required to achieve the same degree of balancing as is achieved by use of brominated oils. If too much Ester Gum were used, the taste of the finished beverage could possess a bitter character which is often undesirable. Another difficulty arises from the fact that although both glycerol and abietic acid are natural products, Ester Gum is nevertheless produced synthetically from abietic acid, which precludes its use in those beverages which the producer wishes to label as natural.
A desirable clouding agent for use in a formulated beverage will avoid the difficulties associated with the aforementioned known clouding agents, as well as possess various other advantages. Specifically, such a clouding agent would be non-toxic, impart little or no taste to the final beverage, and be effective in producing a non-ringing, cloudy beverage. Also important to such a desirable agent would be its ability to produce a final cloudy beverage which is non-ringing for significant periods of time, specifically at least three months.